Polished Skills (read before voting)

[Mario-Rijo]

Simply put, name the top 15 most polished skilled players. The guys who are the closest to their ceilings when compared to the rest of our minor leaguers. The prime example of a player who's not just ultra talented but extremely polished is albert Pujols. He has maxed out his talent because he has worked very hard at making every part of his game as sound and efficient as possible. That's why he is the best single player in all of baseball IMO.

Again vote for your top 15 polished players and if at all possible give me your rankings which will help to make this more accurate.

[Mario-Rijo]

Oops forget "other" so just put other in your post and figure it in that way.

[Mario-Rijo]

I 1st want to say that I think Homer is on the cusp of being somewhat polished but I am gonna with hold judgement for now until I see more.

#1 - Heisey
#2 - Turner
#3 - Hanigan
#4 - Rosales
#5 - Maloney
#6 - Henry
#7 - Fisher
#8 - Valaika
#9 - Frazier
#10 - Thompson
#11 - Alonso
#12 - Ramirez
#13 - Stewart
#14 - Bucholz
#15 - Soto

[Screwball]

I 1st want to say that I think Homer is on the cusp of being somewhat polished but I am gonna with hold judgement for now until I see more.

#1 - Heisey
#2 - Turner
#3 - Hanigan
#4 - Rosales
#5 - Maloney
#6 - Henry
#7 - Fisher
#8 - Valaika
#9 - Frazier
#10 - Thompson
#11 - Alonso
#12 - Ramirez
#13 - Stewart
#14 - Bucholz
#15 - Soto

I'm sorry but I have no idea how Alonso is outside of the top 5 on your list, let alone 10. He's about as polished a pick as they come. Not only did he embarrass college pitching, but he's also mashed in his so-far brief stint in the Minor Leagues.

If I had to put someone on the the 25 man today to help my team out, I'd certainly put Alonso ahead of Heisey, Turner, and Rosales. BUt maybe that's just me. At any rate, I'm not informed/motivated enough to pick out my top 15. Just pointing out what I thought to be a big oversight in the list.

[kpresidente]

Dickerson, Dorn, Ramirez, Maloney are, I think, the easy answers.

[flash]

Hannigan is easily the most polished by virtue of his time , working with pitchers and fielding.

Next I would go with Dickerson and Rosales. since they both have gotten to the big club. Dickerson only had three errors last year at Louisville and none with the Reds.

Next I wenrt with Turner and Soto due to their few errors and superior hitting skills.

I also gave a plug for Heisey.

I can't see plugging a 1st baseman who can't play any other position. (Alonso)
Valaika and Francisco are error machines.

If I was to go with any pitcher it would be Ramirez. he was the only pitcher to have any kind of success against major leaguers.

I also believe Roenicke and Manuel should have been on the list because I believe they are ready.

[mace]

Simply put, name the top 15 most polished skilled players. The guys who are the closest to their ceilings when compared to the rest of our minor leaguers. The prime example of a player who's not just ultra talented but extremely polished is albert Pujols. He has maxed out his talent because he has worked very hard at making every part of his game as sound and efficient as possible. That's why he is the best single player in all of baseball IMO.

Again vote for your top 15 polished players and if at all possible give me your rankings which will help to make this more accurate.

I'm having a little trouble with that definition because it implies that those players are not likely to improve. I'd submit that they're polished because they work at it, and for that reason there's still the distinct possibility of improvement. An example would be Valaika. He aooears to be a very solid fundamental hitter and would seem to fit the profile for this list. But I think his work ethic will keep serving him into the big leagues. To wit, reports are that he has already, somehow, improved his range at shortstop. That obviously comes from work. So the phrase "closest to their ceilings" gives me pause. It implies that these guys aren't going to get much better, and I disagree with that.

[Mario-Rijo]

I'm having a little trouble with that definition because it implies that those players are not likely to improve. I'd submit that they're polished because they work at it, and for that reason there's still the distinct possibility of improvement. An example would be Valaika. He aooears to be a very solid fundamental hitter and would seem to fit the profile for this list. But I think his work ethic will keep serving him into the big leagues. To wit, reports are that he has already, somehow, improved his range at shortstop. That obviously comes from work. So the phrase "closest to their ceilings" gives me pause. It implies that these guys aren't going to get much better, and I disagree with that.

I'll be honest I was actually on the fence about including that part you quoted, precisely for that reason. I just didn't have the words to express what I wanted to completely. But I do think its fits to a larger degree than it doesn't. For example Heisey, here's a kid who is virtually a finished product, at least as a minor leaguer can be with regards to his polish. He may yet get stronger (talent) and more experienced but his skillset is pretty complete. He's technically sound and pretty efficient in almost every way that he can control.

[Mario-Rijo]

I'm sorry but I have no idea how Alonso is outside of the top 5 on your list, let alone 10. He's about as polished a pick as they come. Not only did he embarrass college pitching, but he's also mashed in his so-far brief stint in the Minor Leagues.

If I had to put someone on the the 25 man today to help my team out, I'd certainly put Alonso ahead of Heisey, Turner, and Rosales. BUt maybe that's just me. At any rate, I'm not informed/motivated enough to pick out my top 15. Just pointing out what I thought to be a big oversight in the list.

Just because he's as polished a draftee as they come doesn't make him the most polished of our players. I think alot might put him up there but IMO that's giving him an awful lot of credit that he has yet to earn. I think he still has a deficiency or 2 that can be improved and maybe I am just knit picking but I'd rather knit pick now and know for sure later, than the opposite. Just call my opinion on him a hunch based on little information, when I know better I can go either way.

[tripleaaaron]

1. Heisey
2. Dickerson
3. Hanigan
4. Maloney
5. Rosales
6. Dorn
7. Ramirez
8. Roenicke
9. Valaika
10. Henry
11. Alonso
12. Frazier (forgot to vote for him in the pool)
13. Stubbs
14. Thompson (forgot to vote again)
15. Manual

I voted with a perspective of who was closest to their finished product and I think Alonso is further from his ceiling than most therefore he comes in at #11.

[Mario-Rijo]

I can see by the total of people voting that we've had little interest in doing this exercise so I am not going to take it any further. I kept this open a day longer than the previous poll and got less than half the votes.

So thanks for those who have taken time to be a part of it.

[RED VAN HOT]

I can see by the total of people voting that we've had little interest in doing this exercise so I am not going to take it any further. I kept this open a day longer than the previous poll and got less than half the votes.

So thanks for those who have taken time to be a part of it.

Thanks for the effort. I appreciate all that you have done in creating these polls. They have been entertaining and informative.

I think many of us were uncomfortable rating "polished" on the basis of statistics for players at A+ and lower. Although statistics are helpful in inferring many dimensions of a player, a meaningful polished rating almost requires having seen him play. Perhaps next year we could consider a top 10 "major league ready" for this category. Players at higher levels have compiled a more extensive track record. At those levels we can expect them to have addressed many of the holes in their games.

Also, it might be interesting to do the category ratings first. Then compile a list of top 10 prospects from the average of category scores. Thus, the overall list would effect a trade-off between the near ML ready player likely to be a backup and the lower level player with expected holes in his game, but an extremely high ceiling.

[tripleaaaron]

I like it and would love to see the results through completion.